A team of engineers from the National Institute of Information and Communication Technologies of Japan has achieved a groundbreaking speed in data transmission using standard fiber-optic cables. The engineers succeeded in reaching a speed of 402 terabits per second, equivalent to 50.25 terabytes per second, which surpasses the previous record set in October last year by 25%. This feat marks a significant advancement in data transfer capabilities.
To put the speed into perspective, loading the popular game Baldur’s Gate 3, with a volume of about 150 gigabytes, would take less than four milliseconds at a speed of 402 Tbit/s. This is approximately 100,000 times faster than a standard home internet connection with a speed of 100 Mbps commonly used in households.
The experiment involved the use of commercially available optical fibers spanning 50 kilometers in length and signal amplifiers. By incorporating an extensive amount of data context and advanced amplifiers, the engineers were able to achieve a total signal frequency of 37.6 THz. This speed surpasses the capabilities of the current Wi-Fi 7 standard by more than 100,000 times.
Fiber-optic cables serve as the foundation of the global internet infrastructure, transmitting digital information through modulated infrared, light, and ultraviolet signals. While the technology showcased by the Japanese scientists represents a significant leap in internet network development, it remains inaccessible to a wide range of users due to high costs associated with implementation.
Despite the impressive advancements in data transfer speed, it is unlikely that this technology will be readily available to average users in the near future. The current computing technology, such as motherboards with Ethernet ports of 10 Gb/s, would lag behind the new fiber-optic technologies by approximately 400,000 times. Other components, including PCH and recording speed, also face limitations in handling such high-speed data transfer.
Although current technologies may not fully harness the potential of this level of data transfer speed, continuous progress in the field suggests that these achievements may eventually become commonplace. The era of relying on 100 Mbps internet speeds may soon become a thing of the past as advancements in data transmission capabilities continue to evolve.